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Iammynewt

Cozort: At the time, I was staying in the mountains, and he contacted me through MySpace, I believe. We started talking a lot, and he kept sending me demo songs, and I thought he had a lot of potential. I had some material that I had been working on that I didn't want to use for Iammynewt because it was a little too experimental. I would send those tracks to him, and he would add to them via the Internet, back and forth, and I was liking what I was hearing when he'd send them back. After we got about three or four songs started up over the Internet, he came up to the mountains and partied, and from then on, it was just back and forth from my studio to his studio, from my bedroom to his bedroom. Eventually, when I felt all the songs were finally completed, I talked to him about releasing it digitally to see how it would do. He agreed, and that is how it came to be mastered by me in the end. We put it out, and it's been doing pretty well.

Because, you've worked with groups like Cyanotic and Empty and a plethora of others primarily through the Internet, how do you find that working in the digital realm compares to working with people in person, and how has it has been a benefit to your methods of production?

Cozort: Working with people electronically through the internet and mail—because sometimes they'll send me CD-Rs of Mac files or their session files on CD or DVD—but whenever they do that, it's more like they might give me a suggestion as to what they want their sound to sound like. With me, it's just me primarily mixing or processing or adding to their tracks, basically producing their tracks by taking what's on the demo and making it a final track; they have a lot more of my vibe included in it than most people would expect. When they get the product, they're like, 'Wow!' because it would be their vibe enhanced by what I've added, whereas if they would come into the studio and record with me, it would still have my vibe, but it would be influenced or affected by theirs more, and so it would have a different outcome. I prefer making music by any means than not. I don't like sitting around not making music for weeks. I'm always working on something.

As far as the material on Ohaka, you'd said that it was more experimental and not would you would normally put under the Iammynewt name. How would you describe Iammynewt versus the material that you did for Ohaka? Is it necessarily more experimental than what you would normally do under that moniker?

Cozort: Iammynewt would be a more minimalist pop, electro, dark, evil vibe that people can get lost into, and I have been going through a lot of anxiety at the time, so I wasn't actually working on Iammynewt. I was just making some really random and chaotic music, and I thought, 'Well, I have to do something with this.' It is Iammynewt, per se, but it's a very different side to it. When I brought it with Skullduggery, I was under the influence of anxiety drugs to help suppress some of it, but if you look at me, then you can tell that anxiety drugs don't work very well.

You have worked with Cyanotic, whose new album is called The Medication Generation, so it's interesting that you bring up anxiety drugs. Will you be working on the new album with Cyanotic?

Cozort: I don't know, really. We've been down for years, and there's no way that I wouldn't help him if he were to need assistance with that album, so he knows that I would be down for it. But there is no official word on if I'm mastering it or not; none of that has been said yet, but of course I would.

One of the bigger names that you've been working with recently is Pigface. How did you first come to work with Pigface, and when can we expect to hear the fruits of that?

Cozort: I've known Martin for years, and basically at the beginnings of Iammynewt, I had to choose a name for the Notes… compilations—it was right before the fifth Notes from Thee Real Underground compilation CD came out—when I had just started making music that I would consider to be Iammynewt style. They were darker tracks and I sent them to Martin, and he said he wanted to include them on that CD, so he did. I told him I had a full-length, I sent it to him, and he really, really liked it, but we couldn't come to an agreement. He really dug that full-length, but it hasn't been released for a number of reasons. I ended up asking him to play drums on some tracks from the unreleased debut, and he was ecstatic about it. He did two songs, but three renditions. So the debut, when it finally comes to light, should have one bonus track that he played drums on, and through that. Anytime he has a release that needs music for, he'll contact me, like on the tribute to the Ramones that he asked me to do a song for, and since there are no vocals in Iammynewt, I used text-to-speech for the vocals on that song, and it came out really well. There are so many, such as the Ritalin remix album, and I wasn't on that one, but I'm on a couple of Pigface remixes that he did. I'm on the Pigface 17 Ways to Suck remix album, and that's the latest thing I've done with them. I'm in talks with him now about other projects, but whether they come to fruition or not remains to be seen.

You've done production and mastering work for a number of artists and compilations, so as your reputation as a producer is growing, what are the major differences that you find between working as a producer for other artists' music versus your own?

Cozort: Usually, when I work on other people's stuff, I work on it to provide the best of my abilities and the key features and points as a producer to theirs, to the way they do their music and to where they're going with their sounds. I try to just build upon that and take the sounds to where it would be finished. I just like to take other people to where they want to go with their music. I definitely meet or beat their expectations, whereas when I do my own music, the only person I have to deal with is me. I have to look into a mirror and say, 'Is this what the song needs to sound like to me?'

Some of the artists you work with are in a very different style than your own music; how do you manage to jump between the different sounds and styles and still find a signature for yourself? How do you reconcile all the different types of music that you work in?

Cozort: Patience. [Laughs.]

That, and I have a very good ear.

That simple?

Cozort: Well, no, it's not simple, but it's true. It takes a lot of patience when you're dealing with others and all of these different styles. There are all of these different elements to each genre, and I have to keep all of those in my head, but at the same time, these people come to me for my vibe, and I like to portray through their style so that if you hear a release that I've mastered, you will notice that the sound quality is very consistent.

On that note, I understand that you're working on a compilation for the Trozoc label that you've started?

Cozort: I am, and it's nearing completion. We're finalizing tracks, and it features some of the best music that you will be able to find on a compilation in the industrial/electronic/experimental or whatever scene. I can't name names just yet, but let's just say that there are good artists on it. They are some of the underground's best, no doubt, and there may be a few surprises.

You've obviously heard a lot of the newer artists coming out right now. What are your thoughts on the state of the electronic and industrial music scene now in terms of what you've heard and worked with? Where do you think the genre or the style or the scene has yet to go?

Cozort: I think the industrial scene has always been the same. People have added extra genre titles to describe industrial like 'glitch,' 'experimental,' 'jazz,' 'pop,' 'classical,' but it all comes back to industrial, and I thought that's what industrial meant. Back in the day, it was music that was not meant for the mainstream. It was a bunch of kids playing in industrial warehouses making music that nobody would listen to. That's my opinion. Is that a bad answer? But industrial music is going places. I'm taking it there! You watch! [Laughs.]

What would you say is the next level?

Cozort: Obviously, you can see even in the mainstream that CD sales are down big time. Bands that build up fan bases from the ground up and keep in touch with their fans and don't get rock star attitudes, if they choose their fans, they're going to keep their fans. Those fans, even if it's only 250 hardcore fans, that's how many CDs they're going to sell with every release. So as long as you maintain a good relationship and network with everybody and don't be a dick, you can make it in the electronic underground.

That needs to be said.

Cozort: And I had to be the guy to say it.

As you mentioned that CD sales are down, Ohaka is a digital release. Despite the ongoing debate about sound quality, do you see releasing music digitally to be the future of distribution and selling music?

Cozort: It already is. iTunes sold more music last year than any major record label. As far as the future goes, I foresee them stepping it up actually and producing high-definition audio files along with the new technology, so you'll no longer get 128 kbps or 192 kbps. You'll be getting the next generation 32-bit or 64-bit audio files from iTunes, so you'll actually have a better sounding product than that of a CD or a high-definition CD because they'll be able to produce that in the future as Internet speeds increase and the technology advances. That's what I think they're going to do, because that's the only thing that they can do. Keep pushing the edge, man! As for Ohaka, it's only been released digitally so far. Let's just say it is a digital album only, but it's at 320 kbps, and it's better quality than you'll find from other digital providers, and you're dealing directly with me as the artist, so every sale helps me. And it's better than CD quality, if I'm not mistaken, because CD quality is 128 kbps, and this is 320 kbps. I don't think just because it's a digital album that it will negatively affect it. People have been buying it and it's been getting good reviews. Ohaka is a digital album and it's selling well, and that speaks for itself.

As you said, all the money made from sales goes to you since you're selling it digitally yourself, and that debate has been somewhat settled as more artists are establishing their own labels for just this purpose. On that note, you have Trozoc. Is it a label or just an imprint for your production work?

Cozort: Trozoc is a production company for friends and friends to be that need help developing their sound, or for them to give to me to take it to the level I've already taken it to for them. It's not a record label, per se, but I will be releasing and co-releasing albums with bands. It's mostly just for the Iammynewt moniker and other projects that I'm involved in personally.

What other projects or collaborations do you have going on right now along the lines of Ohaka?

Cozort: Tympanik Audio recently signed Lucidstatic from Anchorage, Alaska, and I collaborated with him on a track for that new release. It's called Gravedigger, and I'm not sure of the release date, but that's my latest collaboration. I did some electronics for a song called 'Defiance,' at least I think it was called that, and that's also on Gravedigger. I also did a remix for them that will be on their remix album, but that has yet to be finalized. I recently did a remix for Empty that is coming out as a limited edition digipak, and I think the name of the song is 'Not Getting to You.' It's supposed to be released in winter as a single. I've been asked to do a Killing Joke tribute, but I haven't really talked to Martin about that because I've been so busy with the Ohaka album.

Any final thoughts?

Cozort: I would like to thank you and to tell all of those underground electronic artists trying to make it, don't let anybody tell you that you can't make it, because you can if you want to. The way to do it is through constant networking and building solid relationships. And go to Trozoc if you need mastering.